But after the Alliance was established, their good days became somewhat troubled.
On the one hand, the industrial capacity of the new Alliance mysteriously skyrocketed. In the past, they understood Revival City to be merely a trade center, a high-quality hub station. They imported many agricultural products from it and, at the same time, sold their industrial products through Revival City to the outside world in exchange for raw materials and production supplies...
But now, within a year and a half, according to the latest intelligence, the industrial city called Weixing City, which sprang up not far from Revival City, already gathered an industrial population of over two million. Its output even surpassed Polar Industrial City. Moreover, it was capable of producing many things they regarded as highly sophisticated.
The best products that Polar Industries could proudly offer were threefold: the Challenger tank, helicopters, and fixed-wing jet aircraft.
The production capacity for these three items was not actually high, and previously, by selling some of them at very expensive prices, they had earned a quite substantial profit.
On Rage Owl Star, generally speaking, any power that could roll out a Challenger was almost guaranteed to hold an absolute advantage in a regional conflict.
But now... that was far from the case.
The Alliance's armed forces were now equipped with Wind Falcons, Strider Armored Vehicles, and Lion Tanks...
Weren't these much stronger than the toys rolled out by Polar Industries?
As for their "homemade guns and cannons," the Alliance didn't want them anymore. They had better products, and the costs were probably even cheaper than theirs.
The profits from their biggest line of business, arms sales, plummeted—especially after the Eastern Provinces were also reclaimed by the Alliance, leaving them with even fewer customers.
It was fortunate that trade with the Western Desert was not too greatly affected.
The Alliance had considerable restrictions on the export of weaponry. Selling little, the Oasis Lords of the Western Desert, wishing to strengthen their armaments, still saw Polar Industries as a decent choice.
Although competing with Blackbird Heavy Industries to the west was also a very painful matter...
And the arrival of those who called themselves Battle Nuns in The Northlands caused him a great headache.
They had clashed with those cultists under his industry more than a few times. As a result, multiple settlements, which were previously heavily influenced by Polar Industries, were incorporated into the so-called Central-North Province under Alliance jurisdiction.
And the worst part was, they didn't dare to get angry.
What, were they going to take on the Alliance?
Instead, Polar's President Pierre spent every day in fear that the Alliance might suddenly fancy to reclaim the North Territory.
If that were to happen...
To be honest, there wasn't much they could do.
Pierre was clear in his recognition that they wouldn't stand a chance if it came to fighting.
From production capacity to existing military strength down to war potential... the North Territory was not superior in any regard.
Nor could they pull in any allies.
Moreover, they couldn't take the Alliance lightly—they were nominally its members.
The only bit of hope lay in using the current hostile relationship between the Alliance and the Primordial Wrath Owl Sect to rally more around the cultist base in The Northlands, to wage a "people's war" against the Alliance.
Instead of adopting such a strategy with a low success rate and a huge cost, it was better to throw in the towel and join the Alliance.
The moment the idea of joining the Alliance occurred, it felt like the heavens and the earth suddenly broadened!
In fact, he also had the opportunity.
The Battle Nuns contacted him over a month ago, essentially asking for his help in providing clues about the Primordial Wrath Owl Sect and even offering assistance in their pursuit of those cultists.
And the advantage was that those Battle Nuns had quite a bit of clout within the Alliance, making it easier to arrange for the subsequent 'return' of the Polar Industrial Group to the embrace of the Alliance.
He had been getting quite close to those nuns lately.
But if I've decided to join, why has the Alliance suddenly dispatched a large army northward?